RECIPES

Oli's Champion Flanders Red Ale

Champion Beer at 2015 the National Homebrew Competition, scoring 48/50

Based on the recipe in brewing classic styles.

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.008

IBU: 12 (tinseth)

ABV: ~6.3%

25-27L Batch

Brew day: 3/6/2013

5Kg Gladfield Pils

1Kg Gladfield Vienna

1Kg Gladfield Munich

500g Carapils

300g Gladfields Wheat

250g Gladfields Aromatic

250g Belgian Aromatic

250g Caramunich II

250g Special B

100g Maltodextrin

10g Southern Cross (12% AA) 60min

US-05

Wyeast 3763 - Roeselare Blend

Bottle Dregs of your choice (e.g. Cantillon).

20g european oak cubes (light toast)

Given it was 2 years ago and I'd only just started brewing all grain, my notes are a bit sparse. Here's what I could find/remember:

Colour wasn't quite as dark as I would have liked, racked some dark wort into it a bit down the track to get it up to a nice deep ruby red.

I like to brew at least 25L on brewday so I can fill a 23L carboy right up to the neck in primary/secondary. Sometimes I'll do the primary in a 23L carboy + a 4.5L demi-john, use the demi-john the top up the fermenter once the yeast has settled down.

29/12/13:
Secondary (16 months):
Racked to secondary on top of some dark wort for colour adjustment. Added oak cubes, 100g Maltodextrin and yeast nutrient.
I used the wardrobe in the spare bedroom of our flat for all my sours, this room got almost no direct sunlight so was the coolest/steadiest room in the house temperature wise.

So it was close to 2 years in fermentation + 6 months in the bottle by the time it was judged.

When it was young in the bottle it had kind of a buttery / ethyl-lactate type flavour + aroma. This seemed to drop off after a few months.

I left it in the fermenter for so long because I believed it wasn't sour and complex enough. I pretty quickly learned that the perception of these beers changes a lot when you add some CO2 into the mix, it helps to lift the aroma and increase the perceived acidity. I think it's quite aggressive for the style, but if you like aggressive sour beers then adding some dregs can really help.

The main thing I'd improve in this beer would be to try and boost the mouthfeel and general malt backbone. I've recently put down a bigger, darker version using only fresh roeselare in primary. I'm hoping the bigger OG will give more residual body + mouthfeel (as well as a different grain bill). If the fresh roeselare doesn't produce the acidity I'm after, my plan is to blend with some more aggressive batches.

Anyway, I hope my crazy kitchen sink attempt at a flanders inspires someone to give it a go ;). Don't let anyone tell you that brewing sours is difficult, if you can make wort you can make sour beer :) Malt extract brews are great for sours too.

Sam's Champion NZ Pale Ale

Champion Ale at 2015 the National Homebrew Competition scoring 47/50, and winner of Brewmania 2016

Fermented at 18 degrees for first five days and then ramped to 21, ended up splitting the dry hop in half adding for 7 and four days. Cold crashed for a couple of days, kegged and hit with gelatin. All up a 17 day turn around as I got started a week late, would have been four weeks grain to glass on judging day - sheet attached.

The water additions work out to be 4g CaCl, 6g Gypsum, 6g Epsom with Christchurch water.